Naomi Grim (7 page)

American History turned out
to be the never-ending hour. Ms. G. talked about how the United States was a
democracy—a government ruled by the majority. I wondered what that felt like.
Nowhere was the opposite. Dunningham and the Covenant had the only and final
say. We Grims did what we were told, no questions asked. I
 
spotted
two more Fated in the class and I was restless. I had no interest in American
History to begin with, but there was absolutely no way I could focus.

My whole day was spent
dodging Roxy and Hunter. How could I look them in the eye? During PE, I'd
pretended to be sick so I could spend the period in the nurse's office. She
took my temperature because I was so pale, unaware that I always looked that
way. She'd told me to call my mother because my temperature was lower than it
should have been. I realized my mistake and hightailed it out of there.

When Mr. Mayer assigned us
to answer questions at the end of the chapter in Language Arts, I asked for a
hall pass to use the restroom. I took my sweet time walking down the empty
hallway. It was my intention to take as much time as possible.

I went into the bathroom and
found it empty. I stared at myself in the mirror for a minute. I had been
playing around with my makeup, following Roxy and Paige's tips. My face didn't
look as good as when they had done it, but it looked okay.

I went into a stall because
I did kind of have to go. I heard someone enter. Whoever it was didn't go into
a stall. They stopped in front of the mirror. I heard water running from the
sink. I flushed and left the stall.

The girl at the sink was
washing her face. She had that familiar look I knew all too well—the look of a
Forager. I was confused. Doyle said he had taken care of them.

The girl looked at my
reflection in the mirror and smiled. "Hello, Grim."

I went to the sink to wash
my hands. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The girl had an ashy,
sunken-in face. Although she was young, the girl was beginning to age
prematurely. She wore a cap over her brown dingy-looking hair. I noticed how
Forager's features seemed to lighten. They weren't as dark as ours. She
laughed. "Please, you know what I am, and I know what you are."

"Why are you
here?"

"We know. We know there
are many lives to be collected here. Enough to sustain our people for a while.
We need these lives a lot more than you do. You don't need them at all."

I turned the water off and
grabbed a paper towel. "You won't get to those lives before us."

"Don't be too sure
about that," the girl said. "This is life or death for us. You'd be
surprised what one would do to survive. Of course, you wouldn't know about
that. You've never had to fight for your life."

She was right about that.
"How many of you are here?"

"Enough. A lot more
than five."

 "It doesn't matter.
We're much stronger than you are."

The girl ran her fingers through
her dirty hair. "That may be, but your group has a weak spot."

"Yeah, what would that
be?"

"You," the girl
answered. "You're the weak spot. You think we don't watch you? Follow your
every move?"

That couldn't be. I was a
Grim. If someone had been following me, I would have known. But the Foragers
were good at that sort of thing; that was how they beat us to the lifestones
sometimes.

"I see you getting
close to them. Falling for that boy. Trying to fit in. I mean, look at your
face. Grims don't wear makeup. I've seen the glow. I hope you're not thinking
of doing anything stupid," the girl said.

"What does that
mean?"

"Stupid like stopping
this. Make no mistake, Naomi Grim. If you do anything to prevent this, you'll
have bigger worries than Dunningham."

I stepped close to the girl
and looked her dead in the eye. "Don't you dare threaten me filthy
Forager."

The girl only laughed and
then left the restroom.

* *
*

"Casper! Where've you
been all day?" Paige asked. I turned to see her, Roxy, and Ashley standing
behind me. Roxy was still glowing and I just couldn't bear to look at her.

"I haven't been feeling
well. I was in the nurse's
 
office."

Roxy frowned. "Oh. Feel
better?"

"A little."

"We're going to the
mall," Paige said. "Wanna come?"

"Um, no thanks. I have
a lot of work to do." I thought it was best if I broke ties with them
then. I didn't trust myself around Roxy. I figured I'd blurt out my secret at
any given moment.

"Ah, boo, party
pooper," Paige whined.

"Sorry," I said,
backing away. "I'll see you guys around."

* *
*

The weekend came again
without incident. We had been at Kennedy High for almost two weeks now and I
wondered when "it" was going to happen. I avoided Hunter like he had
the plague, but once again he convinced me to go out with him. I told him on
Saturday afternoon we could go for a quick bite to eat, but that was it. Hunter
was going to die soon. The least I could do was give him a few hours of my
time. Part of me wanted to see Hunter because every time I saw him could be the
last.

We went to a place called
Bubba's, which was half arcade and half restaurant. We shared a pizza and then
spent a good portion of the afternoon challenging each other at various games.
Hunter won every time. I didn't expect any different. We didn't have arcades
and video games in Nowhere, so he had a lot more experience than me.

"Snowflake, you
suck," Hunter said playfully as we left Bubba's.

"Hey, I'm just warming
up. Next time—" I caught myself. There wouldn't be a next time. I couldn't
go out with Hunter anymore. This had to be it. For all I knew, this massacre
could happen on Monday and I'd never see him again.

Hunter grinned. "Next
time, huh? Is that a promise?"

I didn't answer his question
as he opened the door of his pick-up truck for me.

Hunter tried to make small
talk on the way home, but I didn't make it easy for him, replying with yes and
no answers. I think the more I thought about it, the more reality was setting
in. Hunter's life was over, not only his, but Roxy's and 146 other unsuspecting
kids. Kids who had dreams of homecoming dances, proms, graduations, and going
off to college. Their dreams would never happen and their families would be
crushed.

We pulled into the driveway.
Hunter looked at me expectantly. He wanted me to kiss him, but I couldn't. I
did touch his chin and stare into his eyes. I had the power to save him. There
was a possibility that I could stop this, so why shouldn't I? For money? To
have more years added to my life? There would be plenty more opportunities for
that. Then I reminded myself that this wasn't just about me and the kids at
Kennedy High. It was about my family, Keira and Josh, and the entire colony of
Nowhere. We needed the lifestones. I remembered a sacred part of our Covenant.
It was not my place to determine who lived or died. It was my job to collect
the lifestones—nothing more.

"Thanks, Hunter,"
I muttered, grabbing the door handle. "See you, Monday."

He looked disappointed once
more and I wondered why he had so much patience with me. "Okay,
Monday."

Both cars were gone, so I
assumed no one was home. Dorian and Josh had mentioned something earlier about
going to see some zombie movie. Maybe they all had gone.

When I entered the house, I
heard nothing except for the gentle hum of the air conditioner and a rumbling
from the icemaker in the fridge. I had the house to myself.

I ran upstairs to change
into something more comfortable—sweatpants and a T-shirt. I planned on parking
in front of the TV for the rest of the day. From the bedroom, I heard the
chirping sound the front door makes when someone opens it. The others were
home—so much for quiet time. I hung my clothes in the closet and ran
downstairs. I'd hit the bottom step when I saw Hunter standing in our living
room, looking around with his back turned to me.

"Hunter! You can't be
here!"

"I wanted to use your
bathroom before I—how did you do that?" he asked, finally facing me.

"Do what?"

"That— to your face.
The makeup." I had no idea what he was talking about.

"I don't know . .
."

Hunter stepped closer to me,
looking at my face skeptically. "What the—" He reached his hand out
to touch my face. He brought his hand back quickly as if something had burned
him.

"What?"

"Why does your face
feel like that?"

"Like what?" I
touched my face. It felt like it always did. I looked in the mirror that hung
on the living room wall. My face looked normal.

"Like what? Like bones.
A skeleton."

That's when I knew. That's
why humans weren't to come inside our home. He could see me for what I really
was.

"Listen, Hunter. I can
explain—"

But Hunter backed away from
me like I was a monster. "No, no. Ashley said there was something weird
about you. I should have listened to her. Stay the hell away from me."
Then he darted from the house, leaving the door opened behind him.

I closed the door and sat on
the living room couch, trying to catch my breath. How was I going to explain
this? How was I going to tell the other Grims I had blown our cover?

* *
*

"See? Do you get it
now?" Bram screamed. We were all gathered in the living room. When the
others had made it home, I told them what had happened.

"I'm sorry. How was I
supposed to know he would come inside?" I wasn't accustomed to locking
doors. We didn't have to do that in Farrington.

"That's not the
point," Keira said. "You shouldn’t have been with him anyway. You
should have never brought him to this house. He wouldn't even know where we
live if you hadn't let him come here. I don't get you, Nay. You know he's going
to die. What's the point of you hanging out with him?"

I looked at their faces.
Even Josh and Dorian watched me with angry eyes. "I'm sorry," was all
I could say.

Bram stood and went to the
window. "I knew it. I knew you were going to be the one to mess this
up."

"Nothing's messed
up," I replied.

"What if he tells
everyone what he saw?" Dorian asked.

I shrugged. "So what?
That doesn't hinder the assignment. We'll still do what we need to do."

Bram pulled the curtains
shut. "I'm going to feel really, really sorry for you when we get back to
Nowhere."

* *
*

To add insult to injury,
Doyle showed up that night. He didn’t say much at first. He sat on the couch
and Keira served him coffee.

He took a sip and thanked
her. "Grims, leave me a moment to speak to Naomi alone."

I shuddered as the others
made their way up the stairs. I studied the pattern in the rug as I listened to
three doors close—leaving me alone with Doyle.

He placed his mug on the
coffee table. "Naomi, we have a problem here."

I cleared my throat.
"What's that?" I asked, as if I didn't know.

"You deliberately broke
my rule. Did I or did I not tell you that no humans were to be in this
house?"

"Yes, you did, but I
didn't bring him inside—"

"He shouldn't have been
here in the first place. You were present in the training when I told you to
keep your distance, or did you think that didn't apply to you?"

"No, sir, I mean, yes,
sir."

Doyle sighed and picked up
his mug again. "You know what this means, don't you? I've going to have to
subtract fifteen years from your life."

"No!" This would
be my third deduction. Three offenses were too many to be considered an
upstanding Grim. Now I would be in the same category as Bram—a troublemaker
with a bad reputation. My body ached from the thought of being strapped to that
chair. "Please, Mr. Doyle!"

"Your father has
already been notified. Needless to say, he is thoroughly disappointed."

That statement hit me like a
stone. Letting Mother and Father down would be worse than the chair. I wanted
to make my parents proud. Maybe I could still make it up to them.

"As you've been told
countless times before, this assignment is extremely important. Do you need to
be removed? Should I just let the others continue without you?"

"No, please, Mr. Doyle.
I can handle this. I won't mess up again."

Doyle placed his half-empty
coffee cup on the table. "Be sure that you don't." He grabbed his
briefcase, as if preparing to leave.

"What about the
Foragers? They're still there. One spoke to me the other day."